Titanium 6Al-4V alloy has been identified as the material of choice for lightweight combat and tactical vehicles because of its high mechanical strength, high hardness, low density, good formability and high ballistic performance. Research by the U.S. Army Research Lab, however, indicates that relatively thick monolithic titanium 6Al-4V plate suffers from adiabatic shear plugging failures.
In view of the above, it would be advantageous to provide improved titanium-type armor and improved methods of manufacturing titanium-type armor.